THE PARSON FINCH. 175 



bird changes from one colour to the other; for the original supposition 

 that all of the six birds were Blacks was almost unquestionably a 

 mistake of the dealer, who was unable to distinguish the different 

 varieties owing to the birds having been in their nest feathers whilst 

 in his possession. 



" The colours of the descendants of a Red-faced bird paired with 

 a Black-faced may be expected to be erratic ; but my own firm opinion 

 is that, in a state of nature, as a rule the Reds will pair with the 

 Reds, and the Blacks with the Blacks, and that each variety will 

 breed true to colour.* 



REGINALD PHILLIPPS." 



In 1893, I purchased a pair of supposed Black-head Gouldians : 

 at the following moult the hen bird developed a few red feathers on 

 the crown only, and these she retained through the succeeding moult; 

 she died just in time to take her place upon my plate : Mr. Abrahams 

 thinks that she was a Red-head too weak to develop her proper 

 colouring ; but to me it seems far more probable that she was a 

 Black-head with a strain of red blood in her. 



Illustrations from living examples and skins in the author's 

 collection. 



THE PARSON FINCH. 



Poephila cinda, GOULD. 



T NHABITS North-eastern and Southern Australia. It is a very 



1 beautiful but .at the same time inquisitive and spiteful bird : its 



head is silver-grey ; a blackish line from the base of the beak to the 



eye ; the back fawn-colour, shading into vandyke brown on the wings 



and lower back ; upper tail-coverts black, broadly tipped with white, 



* This opinion, however, seems not to be borne out either by the statement of Dr. Ramsay's 

 collector, or by the experience of those who have kept both phases together in large aviaries : 

 personally I think it tolerably certain that, in a state of nature, the females always prefer the 

 Red-headed males. A.G.B. 



